Publication

The earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January was the event that wreaked the most havoc in that country’s history. Approximately 200,000 people lost their lives and almost 2 million were made homeless. On the international scene the earthquake revealed that there are no mechanisms in place for joint crisis management in the event of large-scale natural disasters. This should provide the impetus—in particular for the EU member states—to replace ad hoc measures with an efficient aid and humanitarian disaster reaction system.